Imagine living in a dark and scary world. People are frequently trying to hurt you. Demons speak to you from the shadows. You fear you may kill people with your thoughts. Then imagine you had to step out of the house every day and function like everyone else. How would you accomplish such a thing? Is it even possible? Indeed, while it seems improbable, Elyn Saks shows us that it is not impossible. Saks holds multiple degrees from prestigious universities and has a satisfying career in higher education. She has a close group of friends who cherish her and a husband who accepts her for who she is. Not only is Elyn Saks a woman with schizophrenia functioning in the world, she is functioning perhaps better than most. How has she accomplished this seemingly implausible feat? Certainly finding her way wasn’t easy. Saks spent many years denying her mental illness and on many occasions her stubborn denial was almost her undoing. She wrongly thought that if she just fought hard enough, the invasive thoughts and terrifying feelings would go away. However, this determined streak which was at times so detrimental has also contributed her salvation. Her world, her ‘center’, which she has fashioned for herself is a resilient patchwork held together by her …show more content…
temperament, her compassionate friends and family, therapy, and medication. Elyn Saks grew up in Miami in a typical American upper middle class household. She describes her parents as, “…loving, hardworking, comfortably ambitious (for themselves and for their children), and more often than not, kind. To borrow a phrase from psychological literature, they were “good enough”…’ (Saks, 2007, p. 10). However, while loving and supportive they also appeared to be a family who adopted a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ attitude surrounding certain subjects. Saks learned early on not to mention many of her troubling psychotic symptoms. This silence occurred not only because she didn’t want to worry her parents but also because their reaction was often times dismissive. During periods when their daughter was clearly struggling, her parents chose to ignore the situation rather than confront it. “…I often wonder what it would have been like, just once, if they’d turned it into something. But there was a wall of appropriateness between us at all times...As long as nothing gratuitously unpleasant happened…, all was calm…” (Saks, 2007, p. 118). So, while her parents were supportive in many aspects of her life, they were ignorant of many of the most serious. Saks’s friends were a different story. Fearful of being stigmatized because of her behavior, she was obviously selective about whom she let into her intense and sometimes confusing world. However, when she did choose, she chose wisely. Saks constructed a strong and loving group of people around her who were there when she needed it most. Unlike her parents, these people confronted her mental state, bravely supporting this woman through life’s turmoil. This care, concern, and deep friendship is most obvious with her friend Steve. Stress is a prominent trigger for the breaks from reality that Saks experienced, a fact of which Steve was aware. At one point, upon learning that her psychoanalyst Dr. White was retiring, the psychosis took over and without question Steve came for support. Steve was traveling to universities around the country, interviewing with various psychology doctorate programs. He’d called many times to check up on me, but I wasn’t picking up the phone, so he called our friends who told him what happened. He immediately returned to New Haven….Steve spent several days with me as I listened to music and alternately muttered unintelligibly and threatened to commit violent acts (Saks, 2007, p. 227 – 228). This break from reality upon hearing the news of White’s impending retirement also points to how very important Saks’s psychoanalysts have been in her on going treatment and day to day functioning.
There have been many psychoanalysts in her world but perhaps none as impactful as her first, Mrs. Jones. With Mrs. Jones, Saks was, for the first time, able to let her demons out in a safe and controlled environment to then have them interpreted back to her in a way that made sense. “Me: ‘I am in control. I control the world. The world is at my whim. I control the world and everything in it.’ Mrs. Jones: ‘You want to feel in control because in fact you feel so helpless.’” (Saks, 2007, p.
92). Often psychoanalysis is thought to not work for those with schizophrenia. So, why has this talk therapy treatment been so effective with Elyn Saks? With the intensive support of these professionals, it seems that Saks has been able to explore the fantasies and workings of her own mind. Many of these fantasies she and her analysts discovered were ways that her mind expressed feelings of helpless and fear. In addition to the understanding that they have brought, these men and women have been anchors in times of crisis as well. Always only a phone call away, Saks has avoided many hospitalizations because of their quick thinking crisis interventions during times of stress, even if that intervention included the dreaded medications. Medication was something that Saks vehemently refused to believe that she needed. Why would an obviously highly intelligent woman refuse something that could only increase her functioning? Her reasons were twofold. First, because of her early association with Operation Re-Entry, Saks believed that drugs (including medication) had no place in her body. Secondly, having to take medication would mean having to admit that she was actually ill with something that was out of her control. Many times Saks went on medications that worked well for her. Once she was clear minded, she would begin tapering herself off of them again, often against medical advice. Her single minded stubborn refusal to admit that she may need more than just self-control to fend off her demons was at the heart of many of her instances of psychosis. As one of her psychoanalysts said, “When you’re ill, you’re totally indistinguishable from the worst kind of schizophrenic. It’s not going to get better, and it’s not going to turn into something else. It’s time for you to stop fighting and accept it.” “Stop fighting?” If I was angry before, now I was raging…. I’d show Kaplan and the whole world that I was not mentally ill… I’d get off the damn meds once and for all. And then they’d all see what was what. (Saks, 2007, p. 267) Luckily, Saks had the support of her friends, and professionals (for the most part) as she attempted time and time again to wean herself from her antipsychotics. Again and again, she fell apart because of it only to be picked up and dusted off by those around her. Eventually Saks did come to understand that she needed the medication. “I have a major mental illness. I will never fully recover from schizophrenia. I will always need to be on antipsychotic medication and in talk therapy. I will have good days and bad, and will still get sick” (Saks, 2007, p. 334). This is the reality of her life. Bravely she has come forward to share this life with the world. Through her eyes we see the determination of an intelligent woman facing and triumphing in a sometimes frightening world. She is doing this with the full support of a network of her own devising, a network of friends, family, professionals, and medication who help keep her demons at bay.
Success in high school requires years of hard work and dedication to excellence. During her four years at Holy Trinity, Yasmeen Ettrick has proved herself to be a successful, and dedicated member of the Holy Trinity community. Yasmeen Ettrick
Previously, the narrator has intimated, “She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves. They had never taken the form of struggles. They belonged to her and were her own.” Her thoughts and emotions engulf her, but she does not “struggle” with them. They “belonged to her and were her own.” She does not have to share them with anyone; conversely, she must share her life and her money with her husband and children and with the many social organizations and functions her role demands.
Schizophrenia is one of the most well known and surprisingly frequent psychological disorders today. Patients who have this disorder have problems separating reality from fantasy or delusion. Typically, the person with schizophrenia starts off with a small paranoia about something or someone and continues to get more and more problematic until he/she has trouble functioning in the real world because of emotional, physical, mental, or financial reasons. Because of this, most people who end up homeless have Schizophrenia because they are unable to keep a job, Nathaniel Ayes in the book The Soloist. Nathaniel was a cello player attending the Julliard school of music, one of the world’s most prestigious performing art schools, until he developed schizophrenia and was unable to continue. This book shows how much a disorder such as schizophrenia can turn a person’s life upside down in the course of as little as a few weeks.
These words are the description of schizophrenia, written by a woman who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Elyn Saks. Her book, The Center Cannot Hold is the memoir of Sak’s own life experience and her struggle with schizophrenia, or as she puts it, her journey through madness. Although her journey did not lead to a full recovery, as is the case with many individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, Saks was able to live and maintain a life, despite her very negative prognosis. She is a living myth buster to the stereotypical beliefs that have been commonly assumed by many about schizophrenia. Common misconceptions include the inability to live independently, to work professionally, to have meaningful relationships with friends and/or significant others, and to actually be able to live normal lives. Saks was able to achieve all of these despite her struggles, her late diagnosis, and her numerous hospitalizations and relapses. This is especially encouraging considering the fact that Saks grew up in a time in which schizophrenia was even less understood than it is today. Although researches have come a long way, much is ...
In this passage Diane Glancy portrays a woman’s descent into insanity following her husband’s death. The passage is written in 3rd person limited omniscient, but with glimpses of 1st person perspective from the protagonist. Using frequent references to the cold and confusing and unusual sentence structure, the author depicts the protagonist’s delirious reality.
In Me, Myself and Them: A Firsthand Account of One Young Person’s Experience with Schizophrenia (2007), Kurt Snyder provides his personal narrative of living with Schizophrenia with Dr. Raquel Gur and Linda Andrews offering professional insight into the disease. This book gives remarkable insight into the terrifying world of acute psychosis, where reality cannot be distinguished from delusion and recovery is grueling. However, Snyder’s account does offer hope that one may live a content and functional life despite a debilitating, enduring disease.
Schizophrenia is perhaps one of the most treaded mental disorders, and often confused with multiple personality disorder, which is now known as dissociative identity disorder (DID). With hallucinations, false senses of reality, and delusions, paranoid thoughts that have no basis in reality, schizophrenia is the truly terrifying to not only those around the patient, but to the patient themself. For Professor Elyn Saks, a professor of law, psychiatry, and psychology at the University of Southern California, this comes as no surprise. As a chronic schizophrenic, Professor Saks recalled one of her worst psychotic episodes, which occurred shortly after her New Haven analyst, Dr. White, revealed to her that he was closing his practice. Saks described the news to be shattering, and the trigger to her psychotic episode. Saks continues to describe the psychotic episode, telling the audience hat her best friend flew out to be with her. Saks begins to quote from her writings: "...[f]or a week or more, I had barely eaten. I was gaunt. I walked
Schizophrenia is a deteriorating progressive disease, consequently, it is resistant to treatment for the individual suffering schizophrenia. (Catts & O’Toole, 2016). In most cases the individuals suffering from schizophrenia, are resistive to treatment, in most cases, individuals suffering from schizophrenia, and are resistive in taking antipsychotics. (Catts & O’Toole, 2016). Jeremy doesn’t see himself as a “schizophrenic”, he states that “he’s happy naturally”, and often he’s observed playing the guitar and doing painting in his room. Weekly, he has an intramuscular medication to treat his disorder, crediting the support of his wife. It is indicated that the morality rate, in patients suffering from schizophrenia is higher, despite the considerable resources available, in Australia. New data show that in 20 countries, including Australia, only 13.5% meet the recovery criteria, which means that 1or 2 patients in every 100, will meet this criteria per year. (Catts & O’Toole, 2016). This means that there’s a decline in providing support and services to individuals like Jeremy suffering from a mental illness such as Schizophrenia. Many individuals become severely ill before they realise they need medical treatment, and when receiving treatment it is usually short-term. (Nielssen, McGorry, Castle & Galletly, 2017). The RANZCP guidelines highlights that
There is no one to listen to her or care for her ‘personal’ opinions. Her husband cares for her, in a doctor’s fashion, but her doesn’t listen to her (Rao, 39). Dealing with a mentally ill patient can be difficult, however, it’s extremely inappropriate for her husband to be her doctor when he has a much larger job to fulfill. He solely treats his wife as a patient telling her only what could benefit her mental sickness rather than providing her with the companionship and support she desperately needs. If her husband would have communicated with her on a personal level, her insanity episode could have been prevented. Instead of telling her everything she needed he should’ve been there to listen and hear her out. Instead she had to seek an alternate audience, being her journal in which he then forbids her to do. All of this leads to the woman having nobody to speak or express emotion to. All of her deep and insane thoughts now fluttered through her head like bats in the Crystal Cave.
Alvin C. York who was an American war hero during WWI, was born on December 13, 1887, in Pall Mall, Tennessee. York was third out of eleven kids , he grew up in a small cabin and didn’t receive a lot of schooling as a child. When his father died in 1911, York, was forced to help his mother raise his younger siblings. Because of all the pressure he was under, of trying to fill his father’s shoes. York became a heavy drinker and was frequently involved in bar fights. York stayed a heavy drinker until 1914, when his friend Everett Delk was beaten to death during brawl in Static, KY. After that, he became a member of a Church. This is where York met his wife, Gracie Williams, through the church's Sunday school and singing in the choir. York then
--------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] J.H.Newman ‘Difficulties of Anglicans’ Vol. 2, London 1891 pp. 246-7 [2] Sigmund Freud. Trans Strachey ‘An outline of Psychoanalysis’. Hogarth Press: 1949 pps.
...2004). Three major factors that can influence schizophrenia include stress, coping skills, and social support (Mueser, 2004). Stress can cause an increase in schizophrenia symptoms as well as relapses, although coping skills such as social skills can reduce the effects of stress (Mueser, 2004). Social support can also help lower stress and increase coping skills in these individuals (Mueser, 2004). In Nina’s case, her career is a continual stressor especially when she is chosen to be the Swan Queen. Her body is going through more strain with more demanding practices and her bulimic tendencies are not beneficial for her health. Nina does not have good support from her mother or others around her, making it challenging for her to lower her stress and develop good coping skills; Nina does not have social skills to be able to combat her progressing schizophrenia.
In psychoanalysis the therapist takes on the role of the expert, listening and interpreting Ana’s free associations from her unconscious process. The therapist role is to discover what is real and what is not real. The therapist is not to have an agenda and to remain passive and only engage when interpreting something Ana has stated (Murdock,
Hallucinations and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder were the two main these presented in the film, and were both displayed similarily to what I had learned in the educational instruments I used. The symptoms and characterists of both shined through the character, and made me feel as if I were living her reality with her. The directors of this film made the reality of these physhological disorders come to life for the viewers. This film would be a great piece for educational purposes, which gives the public a better understanding and virtual reality for those who are unfarmiliar with these disorders or who would like to better educate themselves on the topics. This film was a bit more serious, therefore the subject matter was not treated in a humorous way whatsoever. The characters played serious roles, where dedication and perseverance were their main focus. Several scenes in the film gave viewers raw emotion and behind the scenes reality of the life Nina lives, day to day, with her psychological issues. Towards the end of the film Nina begins to experience more hallucinations. She believes everyone is out to get her, including her own mother. There are scenes where she visions the black swan through the mirror, as well as viewing herself as this even person in her dressing room. These hallucinations drive Nina farther away from her reality, and begin to take a toll on her mental
Conchita, Charly Carlyle Ph.D. “Alice’s (& Lady Gaga’s) Sense of Self in Wonderland: A Psychoanalytic Formulation.” nymphobrainiac.wordpress. 5 March 2010. Web. May 2015.